12-15-2004, 05:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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FCC To Vote On High Speed WiFi In Planes, Will Discuss Lifting Cellphone Ban
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041215/D8703TK80.html
"Federal regulators plan to vote Wednesday whether to allow air travelers wireless high-speed Internet access. And they plan to talk about, without a vote, whether to end the cell phone ban."
Allowing it and making it reasonable are two different things. I can see it now. Sit down, get at cruising altitude and launch your browser to be welcomed by a screen that says "Welcome to High Speed Wireless Internet Access provided by Fly-Em-Everywhere Airlines. Please insert your credit card number here. Only $29.99 for the first hour and $9.99 for each additional hour." :roll:
Maybe I am being cynical, but Boeing announced a data access plan earlier this year with pricing only slightly less ridiculious.
As for the lifting of the cell phone ban, I am not sure how much value that has. When flying around a city you might have access, but at 25,000 feet, how much coverage would you have?
UPDATE: The wireless measure passed.
Now let's see how long it takes and what the pricing will be. 
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12-15-2004, 05:15 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 34
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Actually, the cell-phone coverage is planned in conjunction with a satellite dish on the plane that will beam cell calls to and from a satellite, eliminating the problem of high speed switching from terrestrial tower to tower (and lack of towers in some areas).
However, I'm not so concerned with the technology: air travel is cramped and uncomfortable. The airline food some used to complain about is now seldom served. To top it off, do I want those in the seats next to me (18 inches from my ear) jabbering away on their cell phones during the entire flight? No.
I hope the pricing for this "service" is somewhere between unreasonable and obscene.
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12-15-2004, 05:16 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 174
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Wow, is the FCC really admitting, in essence, that the only recorded instance of wireless communications interfering with avionics outside of lab conditions was not due to the nature of the technology but due to a faulty installation which should have never passed IFR certification and be given an airworthiness certificate in the first place?
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12-15-2004, 05:57 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 99
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I just heard the wireless internet issue passed so we can now read PPC Thoughts on flights! Yay! It won't be available till 2006 though, according to the news.
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12-15-2004, 07:13 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 12
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i thought these wifi on the plane is already available from a few airlines such as www.lufthansa.com and others...
here's the pricing from connexionbyboeing.com
i guess these are all international flights :roll:
Quote:
Internet Flight
Complete and unlimited freedom to use our service at any time during your flight. Sign in and out as often as you like.
$14.95 for service on short-haul flights under 3 hours
$19.95 for service on medium-haul flights between 3 to 6 hours
$29.95 for service on long-haul flights over 6 hours
Internet Minutes
High-speed internet access when you need it. Your first contiguous 30 minutes for an initial fee and only $0.25 per minute thereafter.
$7.95 initial fee for service on short haul flights under 3 hours
$9.95 initial fee for service on medium and long haul flights over 3 hours
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service availability....
http://tinyurl.com/6zpsh
:twisted:
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12-15-2004, 07:16 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by duncanhbrown
To top it off, do I want those in the seats next to me (18 inches from my ear) jabbering away on their cell phones during the entire flight? No.
I hope the pricing for this "service" is somewhere between unreasonable and obscene.
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I completely agree. I don't want to be stuck at 30,000 feet surrounded by 50 or more people jabbering away nonstop.
__________________
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12-15-2004, 07:17 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 12
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and about cellphones....well, right now am guessing its the ban that would scrap this plan....
Quote:
Plane maker Airbus reported progress Wednesday in plans to enable passengers to use mobile phones in flight, beginning in 2006.
Test equipment aboard an Airbus A320 plane demonstrated that mobile phones can be used without interfering with navigation systems, according to Airbus.
Cell phones onboard were used to send and receive calls and texts, the Toulouse, France-based company said in a statement.
"The tests are a major milestone in the offering by Airbus of personal mobile telephones aboard commercial aircraft from 2006," it said.
PDAs and other wireless devices were tested in a separate trial, which capped a two-year study led by German Aerospace Center DLR, it said.
While falling fares drive simpler service on short flights, airlines competing on intercontinental routes are turning to innovations such as Internet access, flat beds, and better music and video systems to distinguish their brands.
Airbus rival Boeing, for example, has developed Connexion by Boeing, an onboard broadband Internet service.
Germany's Lufthansa launched the Internet service under the name Lufthansa FlyNet in May aboard some planes and aims to have it available on its entire long-haul fleet by the first quarter of 2006.
Airbus' mobile-phone trial involved using a small onboard base station, or "picocell," and routing calls via the Globalstar satellite communications network to the ground and terrestrial telephone networks.
Airbus, along with Geneva, Switzerland-based SITA and Seattle-based Tenzing, announced plans to form a new company in July aimed at helping airlines deploy such technology.
The companies said the aim was to enable passengers to use cell phones, laptops and PDAs on planes--and to be billed through their own phone company or Internet service provider.
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from cnet:
http://tinyurl.com/469xn
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12-15-2004, 08:42 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Note to self: Do not fly the first 6 months they have this in effect. 8O
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12-15-2004, 09:56 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 784
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The high speed wireless gets a thumbs up from me...but lifting the ban on cell phones is not a good thing. Who wants to be stuck next to someone who is yelling into their phone telling someone how their kid's soccer game went, or how the movie was, etc...
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12-15-2004, 10:24 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 68
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I still think it is all a security risk
I don't know much about bomb detection, but I do know that in the right situation a cell phone can make an interesting boom.
There is potential to make a bomb that fits in a laptop. Hell, you can use the laser diode out of a cd-rom to blind someone, like a pilot.
I think security should still be paramount over features.
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